E-vision Glasses Enhance Vision for the Legally Blind

There are an estimated 39 million blind people in the world. Another 200 million, people like Julissa Marquez, are visually impaired. A knife attack left her with a less than 10 percent chance of having useful vision. But some new technology has literally opened her eyes. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.

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So Many Wonders… So Little Time…

As he wrapped up his journey through southwestern Texas, national parks traveler Mikah Meyer admits he didn’t allocate enough days for his visit to the huge — and hugely popular — Big Bend National Park and Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River.

“Big Bend is so huge that to go from the western edge of the park to the eastern edge is about 50 miles (80 kilometers),” he said. “I planned three days for Big Bend and one day for the Rio Grande and I really should have had more days.”

But he still managed to squeeze in an impressive number of adventures in that relatively short amount of time.

Stark beauty

Driving through a mountainous region of the park, he was immediately struck by its beauty. “It was just stunning,” he recalled. “It looks like something out of a painting or a movie or a postcard.”

That rugged terrain was just one of the features of the park’s diverse landscape, which spreads across 324,000 hectares. The rest is made up of hot, dry desert, and part of the Rio Grande, which forms the natural 1600 kilometer long border between Texas and Mexico.

“It’s like something straight out of a wild, wild west movie,” Mikah remarked as he stood on a hill overlooking the river that separates the two countries. “It’s kind of dry and flat desert and then suddenly these gorgeous mountains just appear, scattered everywhere like little sprinkles on ice cream.”

A lick of ice cream would have been a refreshing welcome from the searing 37 degree Celsius heat as Mikah navigated his way along the Rio Grande Village Nature Trail on the banks of the river.  During his hike, he got to observe some of the park’s many plant and animal species. He marveled at the variety of cactuses, many blooming with colorful flowers, and peered into a shallow pool of water that was so clear, he could see the scales on the fish swimming around in it.

Nature’s hot tub

Hot and dusty after that, Mikah immersed himself in the park’s ancient hot springs – which are believed to have healing powers. He described it as “a hot tub basically made out of local rocks.”

“They used to be part of a Hot Springs resort, but now they are free and open to the public.” He relaxed in the calming waters as the river around him rushed by. He called it a “pretty cool experience,” to be able to enjoy the waters “out in the wild, out in the open, at a national park.”

Day 2 – Cool peaks

On day two of his trip, Mikah waded across the Rio Grande into Mexico, rode a kilometer or so into the border town of Boquillas for a tasty lunch, then headed back to the U.S. just in time to start a climb up to the Chisos Mountains. The entire range, including a large swath of the Chihuahuan Desert, is contained in Big Bend National Park.

The tough workout put Mikah’s fitness to the test. “I worked so hard to get to the top of this mountain,” he recounted. “It was dry and my glasses were fogging up and I had sunscreen in my eyes and I was sweating and my nose was running because it was cold up there… I felt so miserable but it was so gorgeous that I couldn’t help but keep a pep in my step and keep going.”

He made it all the way to Emory Peak, which – at 2385 meters – is the highest point in Big Bend National Park.

“The view at the top was just so gorgeous that it was worth it,” Mikah said. “The whole latter half of the hike, you’re high enough that you can look down at the Chisos Mountains Lodge,” a rustic refuge nestled in the basin of the mountain range where he had stayed the night before.

Day 3 – Ancient lands

By day three of his trip, Mikah was ready for some canoeing with the Far-flung Outdoor Center. He grabbed an oar and headed out onto the Rio Grande.

Starting at the mouth of the Santa Elena Canyon, a popular destination in and of itself, he had a spectacular view of the majestic canyon from the base of its 450 meter high cliffs while he enjoyed a guided, multi-hour float down the river… at least until the the water got too shallow to float the canoes.  

“One of the guides is pulling two canoes at the same time to help get people over these really shallow parts,” Mikah said. “So it was not like the wild rafting excursion you might imagine, it was more like a very shallow canoe float.”

 

“As I was looking up at these massive canyon walls, I realized that if you were a Native American or somebody from hundreds of years ago, this was probably the biggest, highest thing you’ve ever seen. And I understand now why people saw these massive rocks and mountains and thought they were gods,” he said.

Day 4 – Bumpy ride

On his fourth and final day in the park,  Big Bend Overland Tours took Mikah was taken on a long and bumpy tour through some of the park’s most remote areas – a day-long adventure most visitors don’t get to experience.

“What made this so special is that there’s a lot of roads in the park that you really can’t get to unless you have a four wheel drive or a high-clearance Jeep, and so this company, Big Bend Overland Tours, takes people on these back roads that you can’t access without a vehicle.”

Mikah said that despite being exhausted and “disgustingly dirty and dusty” by the end of the day, he also felt “fulfilled that I had really fully experienced this park and got to see portions of it that I never imagined I would get to see.”

In fact, after his time in Big Bend National Park, Mikah says it’s now one of his favorites.

Looking back… and ahead

Mikah wrapped up his adventures in Texas with a visit to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in West Texas, which stretches into the state of New Mexico.

Just as he did in the Chisos Mountains, Mikah hiked to Guadalupe Peak, at 2666 meters, the highest point in Texas .

“The coolest part was getting to the top and getting to look across Texas and seeing both the diversity of land in Texas, everywhere I’d just come from, then also look to the north to New Mexico,” Mikah said. “Everywhere I was about to go.”

Mikah, who plans to visit all 400 plus sites within the U.S. National Park Service, invites you to learn more about his ongoing journey across the American southwest by visiting him on his website, Facebook and Instagram.

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Ariana Grande Returns to US Following Manchester Bombing

Ariana Grande returned to the United States on Tuesday, one day after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at the singer’s concert in Manchester, England, as questions lingered over whether she would continue her European tour.

Grande, 23, was seen in photographs posted by Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper walking down the steps of a private plane at an airport in her hometown of Boca Raton, Florida, and being met by family members.

The Daily Mail images showed the diminutive pop star dressed casually in sweats and appearing downcast as she greeted her boyfriend, the rapper Mac Miller, on the tarmac.

Grande had not been seen publicly since an explosion ripped through the packed Manchester Arena at the end of her performance there. Some of the 22 people who died in the attack were teens or young girls. Grande was apparently unharmed.

British police have identified the man suspected of carrying out the massacre as 22-year-old Salman Abedi, who was born in Manchester to parents of Libyan origin. Islamic State claimed responsibility for what it called revenge against “Crusaders,” but there appeared to be contradictions in its account of the operation.

In her only statement so far, Grande took to Twitter some five hours after the bombing to describe herself as “broken” in the aftermath of the attack.

“from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don’t have words,” she said in the tweet.

Grande was performing in Manchester during the European leg of a tour to promote her third album, “Dangerous Woman,” which also has her scheduled to visit London, Belgium, Poland, Germany and Switzerland in the coming weeks.

Despite speculation that she would cancel the rest of the tour, no formal announcement had been made as of Tuesday. Grande’s manager, Scooter Braun, did not respond to requests for comment by Reuters.

“We mourn the lives of children and loved ones taken by this cowardly act,” Braun said in a statement posted on Twitter on Monday evening. “We ask all of you to hold the victims, heir families and all those affected in your hearts and prayers.”

Grande, a native of Boca Raton, starred in the Broadway musical “13” and on the Nickelodeon TV series “Victorious” before releasing her solo debut album, “Yours Truly.”

Best known for her singles “Problem” and “Break Free,” Grande is credited with having an exceptionally broad vocal range for a pop star.

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Singer Angaleena Presley Brings Her Truth to Nashville

Country singer Angaleena Presley takes on Nashville in her new CD Wrangled.

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Actress-Philanthropist Dina Merrill Dies at 93

American actress and philanthropist Dina Merrill, best known for playing regal aristocratic blondes, has died at 93.

Merrill defied her wealthy family’s wishes to enter show business. Her father was E.F. Hutton, a founder of the American stock brokerage firm that bears his name, and her mother was Marjorie Merriwether Post, heiress to the Post Cereal fortune and a noted collector of pre-revolutionary Russian art.

 

Merrill and her family lived for a time at the Mar-a-Lago estate, the Florida resort now owned by President Donald Trump.

Merrill appeared on the stage, on television and in more than 100 films, including The Desk Set, Operation Petticoat, and Butterfield 8.

She used her family’s fortune for numerous charitable endeavors, including providing food and shelter for impoverished families and a foundation to help children suffering from diabetes.

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Youth Robotics Contest Promotes Innovation for Africa Economic Growth

Several hundred middle school and high school students from Senegal and surrounding countries spent last week in Dakar building robots. Organizers of the annual robotics competition say the goal is to encourage African governments and private donors to invest more in science and math education throughout the continent. Ricci Shryock reports for VOA from Senegal’s capital.

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Tattoos Talk and Play Music

A tattoo artist in California has created what many of us can’t imagine — a tattoo that also produces sound. Artist Nate Siggard inks audio soundwaves onto the skin that makes it possible to hear music or someone’s voice by using a smartphone app. VOA’s Deborah Block explains how he does it.

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American Pop Singer Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande is an American pop singer, dancer and actress. Grande was born in Boca Raton, Florida, in 1993 and began performing onstage when she was a child.

A role in a Broadway play at age 15, followed by some small TV roles, helped her land a role on TV’s “Victorious,” which was set in a performing arts high school. Grande was cast as a goofy aspiring singer-actress named Cat Valentine.

Her pop music career was set off by “Victorious,” and she was signed to the Universal Republic Record label. In 2012, her first single “Put Your Hearts Up” gained great attention, debuting at number 25 on the pop charts.

Her debut album, Yours Truly, was released in August 2013. Grande’s 2014 release, “My Everything,” sold 169,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 1.

In 2015, Grande released Christmas & Chill, a holiday album, and the single “Focus.” In February 2016, she released her third album Dangerous Woman, and the title track debuted at number 10 on the Hot 100 that March.

With it, Grande became the the first person in the history of that chart to have the lead single from each of her first three albums debut in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Grande’s accolades include three American Music Awards, the Music Business Association’s Breakthrough Artist of the Year, an MTV Video Music Award, three MTV Europe Music Awards and four Grammy Award nominations.

In 2016, Time magazine named Grande one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

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Scandal-plagued Fox News Hit with 3 More Lawsuits

New sexual harassment and racial discrimination lawsuits are rocking the already scandal riddled Fox News Channel.

Three new lawsuits were filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Two allege racial harassment at Fox News, while a third alleges sexual harassment at Fox News Radio.

The cases increase to 23 the number of past or present Fox employees represented by attorney Doug Wigdor, the majority having cases alleging racial hostility by a since-fired financial executive. Fox said Monday that the lawsuits have no legal basis.

Kathleen Lee, a Fox News Radio employee of more than 10 years, alleges that radio anchor Ron Flatter subjected her to “unrelenting sexual harassment” after the network hired him in 2013.

A former Fox employee, Adasa Blanco, said she alerted Fox executives about racially hostile behavior on the part of former Fox controller Judith Slater more than eight years before the executive was let go. Slater has denied charges of racially hostile conduct. Blanco, who is Hispanic, said that Slater made fun of her accent.

In the lawsuit, Wigdor said Fox “knowingly harbored and protected” a racist employee for more than eight years and misrepresented to the public that it fired Slater quickly upon learning of her behavior.

Naima Farrow, another former Fox employee who worked for Slater, said she was fired without warning or explanation in 2015, less than three days after telling superiors she was pregnant. Farrow, who is black, said Slater mockingly referred to her as “girlfriend.”

Fox News said in a statement that it is committed to a diverse workplace free from discrimination, and takes any complaint seriously. In these cases, Fox “took prompt, effective and, when necessary, strong remedial action,” the network said. “We believe these latest claims are without legal basis and look forward to proving that the company at all times has acted appropriately, and lawfully, in connection with these matters.”

The new legal claims come as Fox News is battling a series of lawsuits that led to the resignations of former chief executive Roger Ailes, who died last week, star anchor Bill O’Reilly and network co-president Bill Shine.

Wigdor said he also is representing an unidentified black information technology employee who was subjected to racially insensitive remarks by Bob Beckel, an on-air host who was fired last week, days after the worker complained.

 

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Robotics Contest for Youth Promotes Innovation for Economic Growth in Africa

Several hundred middle school and high school students from Senegal and surrounding countries spent last week in Dakar building robots. Organizers of the annual robotics competition say the goal is to encourage African governments and private donors to invest more in science and math education throughout the continent.

The hum of tiny machines fills a fenced-off obstacle course, as small robots compete to gather mock natural resources such as diamonds and gold.

The robots were built by teams of young people gathered in Dakar for the annual Pan-African Robotics Competition.

‘Made in Africa’

The event’s founder, Sidy Ndao, says this year’s theme is “Made in Africa,” and focuses on how robotics developed in Africa could help local economies.

“We have noticed that most countries that have developed in the likes of the United States have based their development on manufacturing and industrialization, and African countries on the other hand are left behind in this race,” Ndao said. “So we thought it would be a good idea to inspire the kids to tell them about the importance of manufacturing, the importance of industry, and the importance of creation and product development.”

During the week, the students were split into three groups.

The first group worked on robots that could automate warehouses. The second created machines that could mine natural resources, and the third group was tasked to come up with a new African product and describe how to build it.

Building a robot a team effort

Seventeen-year-old Rokyaha Cisse from Senegal helped her team develop a robot that sends sound waves into the ground to detect the presence of metals and then start digging.

Cisse says it is very interesting and fun, and they are learning new things, as well as having their first opportunity to handle robots.

As part of a younger team, Aboubacar Savage from Gambia said their robot communicates with computers.

“It is a robot that whatever you draw into the computer, it translates it and draws it in real life,” Savage said. “It is kind of hard. And there is so much competition, but we are trying. I have learned how to assemble a robot. I have learned how to program into a computer.”

The event’s founder, Ndao, is originally from Senegal, but is now a professor at the University of Nebraska’s Lincoln College of Engineering in the United States.

“I have realized how much the kids love robotics and how much they love science,” Ndao said “You can tell because when it is time for lunch, we have to convince them to actually leave, and then [when] it is time to go home, nobody wants to leave.”

Outsourced jobs cost Africa billions

A winning team was named in each category, but Ndao hopes the real winners will be science and technology in Africa.

The organizers of the Next Einstein Forum, which held its annual global gathering last year in Senegal, said Africa is currently missing out on $4 billion a year by having to outsource jobs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to expatriates.

Ndao said African governments and private investors need to urgently invest more on education in those fields, in particular at the university level.

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Robotics Contest for Youth Promotes Innovation in Africa

Several hundred middle school and high school students from Senegal and surrounding countries spent last week in Dakar building robots, and organizers hoped to encourage African governments and private donors to invest more in science and math education throughout the continent.

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Hackers Hit Russian Bank Customers, Planned International Cyber Raids

Russian cybercriminals used malware planted on Android mobile devices to steal from domestic bank customers and were planning to target European lenders before their arrest, investigators and sources with knowledge of the case told Reuters.

Their campaign raised a relatively small sum by cybercrime standards — more than 50 million roubles ($892,000) — but they had also obtained more sophisticated malicious software for a modest monthly fee to go after the clients of banks in France and possibly a range of other western nations.

Russia’s relationship to cybercrime is under intense scrutiny after U.S. intelligence officials alleged that Russian hackers had tried to help Republican Donald Trump win the U.S. presidency by hacking Democratic Party servers.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied the allegation.

The gang members tricked the Russian banks’ customers into downloading malware via fake mobile banking applications, as well as via pornography and e-commerce programs, according to a report compiled by cybersecurity firm Group-IB, which investigated the attack with the Russian Interior Ministry.

The criminals — 16 suspects were arrested by Russian law enforcement authorities in November last year — infected more than a million smartphones in Russia, on average compromising 3,500 devices a day, Group-IB said.

The hackers targeted customers of state lender Sberbank, and also stole money from accounts at Alfa Bank and online payments company Qiwi, exploiting weaknesses in the companies’ SMS text message transfer services, said two people with direct knowledge of the case.

Although operating only in Russia before their arrest, they had developed plans to target large European banks including French lenders Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas and Societe General, Group-IB said.

A BNP Paribas spokeswoman said the bank could not confirm this information, but added that it “has a significant set of measures in place aimed at fighting cyberattacks on a daily basis.” Societe General and Credit Agricole declined comment.

The gang, which was called “Cron” after the malware it used, did not steal any funds from customers of the three French banks. However, it exploited the bank service in Russia that allows users to transfer small sums to other accounts by sending an SMS message.

Having infected the users’ phones, the gang sent SMS messages from those devices instructing the banks to transfer money to the hackers’ own accounts.

The findings illustrate the dangers of using SMS messages for mobile banking, a method favored in emerging countries with less advanced internet infrastructure, said Lukas Stefanko, a malware researcher at cybersecurity firm ESET in Slovakia.

“It’s becoming popular among developing nations or in the countryside where access to conventional banking is difficult for people,” he said. “For them it is quick, easy and they don’t need to visit a bank. … But security always has to outweigh consumer convenience.”

Cybercriminals

The Russian Interior Ministry said a number of people had been arrested, including what it described as the gang leader.

This was a 30-year-old man living in Ivanovo, an industrial city 300 km (185 miles) northeast of Moscow, from where he had commanded a team of 20 people across six different regions.

Four people remain in detention while the others are under house arrest, the ministry said in a statement.

“In the course of 20 searches across six regions, police seized computers, hundreds of bank cards and SIM cards registered under fake names,” it said.

Group-IB said the existence of the Cron malware was first detected in mid-2015, and by the time of the arrests the hackers had been using it for under a year.

The core members of the group were detained on November 22 last year in Ivanovo. Photographs of the operation released by Group-IB showed one suspect face down in the snow as police in ski masks handcuffed him.

The Cron hackers were arrested before they could mount attacks outside Russia, but plans to do that were at an advanced stage, said the investigators.

Group-IB said that in June 2016 they had rented a piece of malware designed to attack mobile banking systems, called Tiny.z for $2,000 a month. The creators of the Tiny.z malware had adapted it to attack banks in Britain, Germany, France, the United States and Turkey, among other countries.

The Cron gang developed software designed to attack lenders including the three French groups, it said, adding it had notified these and other European banks at risk.

A spokeswoman for Sberbank said she had no information about the group involved. However, she said: “Several groups of cybercriminals are working against Sberbank. The number of groups and the methods they use to attack us change constantly.”

“It isn’t clear which specific group is being referred to here because the fraudulent scheme involving Android OS [operating system] viruses is widespread in Russia and Sberbank has effectively combated it for an extensive period of time.”

Alfa Bank did not provide a comment. Qiwi did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Google, the maker of Android, has taken steps in recent years to protect users from downloading malicious code and by blocking apps which are insecure, impersonate legitimate companies or engage in deceptive behaviors.

A Google spokesman said: “We’ve tracked this malware family for several years and will continue to take action on its variants to protect our users.”

Fake mobile apps

The Russian authorities, bombarded with allegations of state-sponsored hacking, are keen to show Russia too is a frequent victim of cybercrime and that they are working hard to combat it. The interior and emergencies ministries, as well as Sberbank, said they were targeted in a global cyberattack earlier this month.

Since the allegations about the U.S. election hacking, further evidence has emerged of what some Western officials say is a symbiotic relationship between cyber criminals and Russian authorities, with hackers allowed to attack foreign targets with impunity in return for cooperating with the security services while Moscow clamps down on those operating at home.

The success of the Cron gang was facilitated by the popularity of SMS-banking services in Russia, said Dmitry Volkov, head of investigations at Group-IB.

The gang got their malware on to victims’ devices by setting up applications designed to mimic banks’ genuine apps. When users searched online, the results would suggest the fake app, which they would then download. The hackers also inserted malware into fake mobile apps for well-known pornography sites.

After infecting a customer’s phone, the hackers were able to send a text message to the bank initiating a transfer of up to $120 to one of 6,000 bank accounts set up to receive the fraudulent payments.

The malware would then intercept a confirmation code sent by the bank and block the victim from receiving a message notifying them about the transaction.

“Cron’s success was due to two main factors,” Volkov said.

“First, the large-scale use of partner programs to distribute the malware in different ways. Second, the automation of many [mobile] functions which allowed them to carry out the thefts without direct involvement.”

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Leaked Documents Reveal What Facebook Will Let You Post

Leaked Facebook documents reveal the company walks a fine line between free speech and violent or hateful content.

The Guardian newspaper says it obtained the “more than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts” outlining how the social media giant decides what content can stay and what gets taken down.

According to the documents, Facebook does allows certain posts that contain violent language. For example, it’s OK to post “let’s beat up fat kids,” but prohibited to post “someone shoot Trump.”

“People commonly express disdain or disagreement by threatening or calling for violence in generally facetious and unserious ways,” reads one of the documents.

Images showing non-sexual physical abuse or bullying of children as long as there is not a “sadistic or celebratory element.” Live streams of people harming themselves is also allowed, the documents say because Facebook doesn’t want to “censor or punish people in distress.”

A Facebook representative said the company’s top priority is keeping users safe.

“We work hard to make Facebook as safe as possible while enabling free speech,” said Monica Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management. “This requires a lot of thought into detailed and often difficult questions, and getting it right is something we take very seriously.”

Facebook has been under increased pressure to prevent violent content from appearing, as a stream of violent videos have been allowed to stay on the site for hours before being deleted.

One particularly gruesome video showed the brutal murder of Cleveland grandfather Robert Godwin in a crime posted on Facebook Live.

The company recently hired 3,000 more humans to help curb objectionable material, and The Guardian documents reveal the moderators are overwhelmed with requests to review material.

“These reviewers will also help us get better at removing things we don’t allow on Facebook, like hate speech and child exploitation, “ Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post about the hiring. “And we’ll keep working with local community groups and law enforcement who are in the best position to help someone if they need it – either because they’re about to harm themselves, or because they’re in danger from someone else.”

The company also employs algorithms to mark objectionable content.

Facebook also faces criticism when it does take down material deemed offensive.

Last fall, the company removed an iconic photo showing a naked Vietnamese girl running from a napalm attack during the Vietnam War. Facebook later allowed the image to be posted.

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Chinese Online Retailer Developing One-ton Delivery Drones

China’s biggest online retailer, JD.com Inc., announced plans Monday to develop drone aircraft capable of carrying a ton or more for long-distance deliveries.

 

The company said it will test the drones on a network it is developing to cover the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi. It said they will carry consumer goods to remote areas and farm produce to cities.

 

JD.com, headquartered in Beijing, says it made its first deliveries to customers using smaller drones in November. Other e-commerce brands including Amazon.com Inc. also are experimenting with drones for delivery.

“We envision a network that will be able to efficiently transport goods between cities, and even between provinces, in the future,” the chief executive of JD’s logistics business group, Wang Zhenhui, said in a statement.

JD.com operates its own nationwide network of thousands of delivery stations manned by 65,000 employees. The company says it has 235 million regular customers.

 

Drones are part of the industry’s response to the challenge of expanding to rural areas where distances and delivery costs rise.

 

Drone delivery in China and other countries faces hurdles including airspace restrictions and the need to avoid collisions with birds and other obstacles. In the United States, regulators allow commercial drone flights only on an experimental basis.

 

A 1-ton payload is heavier than what most drones available now can carry, though some can carry hundreds of kilograms and major drone makers are working on devices able to carry more.

 

China is home to the world’s biggest manufacturer of civilian drones, DJI, in the southern city of Shenzhen.

 

JD.com said its planned drone delivery network in Shaanxi would cover a 300-kilometer (200-mile) radius and have drone air bases throughout the province.

 

The company said it will set up a research-and-development campus with the Xi’an National Civil Aerospace Industrial Base to develop and manufacture drones.

 

JD.com earlier reported first-quarter revenue rose 41.2 percent over a year ago to 76.2 billion yuan ($11.1 billion). It reported profit of 843.1 million yuan ($122.4 million) compared with a loss of 864.9 million yuan a year earlier.

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Race, Gender, Fame All Issues As Cosby Jury Selection Starts

Thirteen years after a Temple University basketball team manager went to famous alumni Bill Cosby’s nearby home for career advice, her complaint that Cosby drugged and molested her that night will soon be a task for a Pennsylvania jury.

Lawyers this week hope to find a dozen jurors and six alternates willing to spend two weeks or more sequestered nearly 300 miles (482 kilometers) from home.

The case has attracted worldwide publicity the judge hopes to shield from jurors when the trial starts June 5 in suburban Philadelphia. Jurors are being chosen in Pittsburgh starting Monday. Cosby arrived at the courthouse Monday morning, holding onto the arm of an assistant and ignoring reporters’ questions.

“You want to see if they’re a celebrity-conscious person – if they read celebrity stuff, if they worship celebrity,” trial consultant Howard Varinsky said. “Prosecutors have to be very worried about fans.”

The lawyers also will be weighing a potential juror’s race, gender, age, occupation and interests as the questioning gets underway. They hope to tease out whether they relate more to the beloved actor who brought the world Fat Albert, Dr. Cliff Huxtable and bemused quips about family and fatherhood, or a woman who was rebuffed when she first filed a police complaint, only to relive the case a decade later after Cosby’s testimony from her lawsuit became public and dozens of other accusers came forward to support her.

“In a normal case, juries are all banging the door to get out, bringing up every hardship in the world,” Varinsky said. “But on this case, you’re going to see people that may lie to get on, and people who convince themselves that they can be fair, but they can’t.”

“Whatever side you’re on, you have to really weed through this,” he said. “I’m looking [as a consultant] for every single micro-expression, each body movement.”

Jurors will be dismissed “for cause” if they admit to strong views about the case or persuade the judge they have family, health or financial situations that prevent them from serving. After that, each side can strike seven people during jury selection and three more when they choose alternates.

Accuser Andrea Constand went to police in January 2005 to report that Cosby had sexually assaulted her a year earlier. She had left Temple the previous March and was back home in the Toronto area, setting aside a life in basketball to retrain as a massage therapist.

Then-District Attorney Bruce Castor declined to press charges. Constand then sued the comedian, negotiating a settlement after he gave sworn testimony about a string of sexual liaisons with young women. Cosby admitted giving some of them pills or alcohol beforehand.

New prosecutors read that testimony and reopened the case in mid-2015. Cosby was arrested on Dec. 30, 2015, days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on $1 million bail.

He told a talk show host this week that he hopes to beat back the charges and resume his career.

“I want people to understand my work as an artist and a performer,” he said. “I want to get back to the laughter and the enjoyment of things that I’ve written and things that I perform on stage.”

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Ringling Brothers Circus Comes to an End

The circus billed as “The Greatest Show on Earth” has come to an end after 146 years.

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus gave its final performance Sunday in Uniondale, New York, 50 kilometers east of New York City.

Ringling Brothers has its origins in the 19th century with showman P.T. Barnum. 

Circus executives said the wild animals, acrobats, clowns and other circus acts that had entertained audiences for over a century could not withstand the 21st century competition of IPhones, the internet and video games.

A decline in ticket sales increased when the circus removed the elephants in May 2016, following years of protests from animal rights activists who said forcing animals to perform and transporting them around the country was abuse.

In January, Feld Entertainment, Ringling’s parent company, announced the unthinkable – the circus would close.

Sunday night the circus received a standing ovation, prompting ringmaster Jonathan Lee Iverson to say, “I thought the circus was antiquated?  You mean you love the circus?”  He led the circus performers, crew and audience through an emotional rendition of Auld Lang Syne.

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Fans Grateful for One Last Time at the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’

Lions, tigers and clowns, no more. Oh my. It’s curtains for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

This weekend is the last chance for fans to see death-defying acrobats, exotic animals and flashy costumes as the circus ends its 146-year reign as one of the world’s biggest big tops.

Ringling’s parent company, Feld Entertainment, announced in January that it would take its final bow this year. On Saturday afternoon, under cloudy skies, fans streamed into the Nassau Coliseum in suburban New York to pay their last respects to the iconic show.

‘An adult today’

“I’m becoming an adult today,” said 46-year-old Heather Greenberg, of New York City. “I can’t go to the circus with my daddy anymore.”

Greenberg and her parents, and her three children, along with her sister and extended family — 12 in all — clowned around, laughing and joking, as they walked into the show.

Her sister, Dawn Mirowitz, 42, of Dix Hills, New York, sobered as she pondered a future without the Ringling Brothers circus.

“We’ll never get a chance to take our grandchildren to the circus,” she said.

Higher costs, smaller crowds

Feld executives say declining attendance and high operating costs are among reasons for closing.

Ringling had two touring circuses this season, one ending its run earlier this month in Providence, Rhode Island.

The final shows of what was long promoted as “The Greatest Show on Earth” are being staged at the Nassau Coliseum in suburban New York. There are three scheduled shows Saturday and three Sunday. For those who can’t make it, the final circus show Sunday night will be streamed live on Facebook Live and on the circus’ website.

One last show

Clarissa Williams, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mom from West Hempstead, New York, was taking her 8-year-old daughter, Nylah, to the show.

“I’m thankful we get to see it before it leaves,” she said. “I pray that when they end, they take the animals and put them in a safe, sacred place.”

A spokesman for the circus says homes have been found for the animals that were owned by Ringling, including the tigers, horses and camels.

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Pentagon Displays Technology of the Future

Robot teammates and “snake” arms that can find a crack .005 millimeter long were just two of the U.S. military’s latest technological innovations on display at the Pentagon this week.

The Defense Laboratory Enterprise showcased more than 80 exhibits on its biennial Lab Day on Thursday. The enterprise is a network of 63 defense laboratories, warfare centers and engineering centers that operate across the United States, and the event provided the Defense Department community with an up-close look at projects in various stages of development and readiness.

Here are some of VOA’s favorites:

Soldier Visual Integrated Technology

Imagine a soldier comes across a suspicious object that she has never seen before. As she stops to explore, she immediately sees an enemy fighter and has to spring into action without time to fully raise her weapon’s sight up to her eye. And she’s unable to see another enemy lurking around the corner.

With Soldier Visual Integrated Technology, the soldier can better see her surroundings and needs less time to react to dangers accurately.

Ronald Geer, a staff sergeant assigned to the Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, says SVIT wirelessly links three pieces of technology on the soldier: a reticle eyepiece, a thermal device on the gun and a communications system attached to the chest.

“What this is going to do is increase my speed and lethality on the battlefield, especially in a close combat situation,” Geer said. “I don’t have to worry so much about raising my weapon to an exact point where I’m able to view through this [his thermal device], because as I raise the weapon, what this is looking at, I’m able to immediately see pulled into the reticle device.”

The connectivity also allows soldiers to use their guns to see what’s around a corner without having to move their bodies into harm’s way.

SVIT updates in real time as well, providing a way to virtually “mark” obstacles or enemy weaponry so that other soldiers can see what the SVIT user views.

Remote Access Nondestructive Evaluation

Jokingly called a “snake on a plane” by some at the Air Force Research Laboratory, R.A.N.D.E. (pronounced Randy) is a robotic arm that can wriggle through an opening as small as 7 centimeters to inspect the interior of aircraft wings or other structures without dismantling them.

Senior Materials Engineer Charles Buynak told VOA that any sensing device can be attached to R.A.N.D.E. to look for minute structural defects.

“We’re looking for things on the order of 1/50,000th of an inch [.00508mm] — before a crack becomes a major thing … and becomes a serious problem to the aircraft,” Buynak said.

The system is driven by a controller from an Xbox 360 home video game console. Buynak said that makes R.A.N.D.E. easy for young operators to use. Another reason is that the Air Force wanted to take advantage of technologies already available.

“Why go spend money developing something that’s easily available that we can adapt to our application here?” he said.

Robots as teammates

The U.S. Army is developing ways to use robots not as tools but as teammates. The Army Research Laboratory displayed several robots this week that can be used as hosts for developing software algorithms for artificial intelligence and machine learning purposes.

Stuart Young, chief of the Asset Control and Behavior Branch, told VOA the goal is to protect soldiers by using technology to “manipulate unknown objects in an unknown world.”

His team is trying to develop AI algorithms that can generalize and understand what’s going on in a robot’s environment. “And then once we have that information,” Young said, “we can manipulate it to accomplish the mission that the robot needs to accomplish.”

Such robot missions could range from breaching an enemy’s defensive position to removing improvised explosive devices, or just moving large objects out of the way while soldiers are in a safer location.

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13-1 Shot Cloud Computing Pulls Off Preakness Upset

Cloud Computing ran down Classic Empire in the final strides Saturday to win the Preakness Stakes by a head.

The 13-1 long shot was one of five fresh horses in the Preakness that didn’t run two weeks ago in the Kentucky Derby.

Derby winner Always Dreaming and Classic Empire dueled for most of the race before Classic Empire stuck his nose in front midway on the far turn. It looked as if Classic Empire would go on to win, but Cloud Computing ran him down on the outside.

Always Dreaming faded to eighth in the 10-horse field on a cool and cloudy day at Pimlico Race Course. A record crowd of 140,327 was on hand.

Ridden by Javier Castellano, Cloud Computing ran 1-3/16 miles in 1:55.98 and paid $28.80, $8.60 and $6. It was just the dark brown colt’s second career victory.

Classic Empire returned $4.40 and $4, and 31-1 shot Senior Investment was another 4-3/4 lengths back in third and paid $10.20.

Lookin At Lee, the Derby runner-up, was fourth. Gunnevera was fifth, followed by Multiplier and Conquest Mo Money. Hence was ninth and Term of Art last.

Trainer Chad Brown earned his first victory in a Triple Crown race. Castellano won for the second time. He rode Bernardini to victory in the 2006 Preakness.

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